When Everyone Promises ROI, Nobody Believes It

Lolita Trachtengerts
Aug 11
3 min read

There’s a silent shift happening in enterprise buying rooms: ROI is no longer persuasive. It’s suspicious.

For years, flashy calculators and bulletproof business cases were the go-to weapon in every sales cycle. “We’ll save you X,” “We’ll drive Y% efficiency,” “Here’s your $1.2M upside.” But now? CFOs, COOs, and finance leaders are tuning out. Too many projections. Too few receipts.

We’ve hit peak ROI fatigue. And it’s not because ROI doesn’t matter — it’s because everyone promises it, and few can prove it.

The ROI Credibility Crisis

According to a 2025 report from Secureframe and Pavilion data:

61% of CMOs feel increasing pressure to demonstrate ROI
Fewer than half are confident in how they’re measuring it
40% of marketing and sales leaders say CFOs are the most skeptical stakeholder when reviewing impact claims

That’s not just a sales challenge. It’s a go-to-market credibility crisis.

Business cases are still required — but they’ve lost their punch. In boardrooms across the enterprise, projections are now met with two words:

“Says who?”

Why Buyers Don’t Trust Your ROI Deck

Most ROI models follow a familiar formula:

Plug in company size
Select generic multipliers
Show a dazzling seven-figure number

But the more impressive the figure, the more disbelief it often triggers.

Here’s why buyers push back:

The assumptions are invisible. No clear source, no context
Soft and hard ROI are mashed together. Productivity and revenue get lumped, then inflated
The math can’t be audited. CFOs want to see the spreadsheet, not just the PowerPoint

When ROI becomes storytelling without structure, buyers stop listening.

Hard vs. Soft ROI: The Crucial Distinction

Buyers aren’t anti-ROI — they’re anti-BS.

That means separating:

Hard ROI → Cost savings, revenue lift, productivity measured in time or money
Soft ROI → Risk mitigation, morale, brand lift, future positioning

Both matter. But they carry different weight.

Hard ROI earns credibility.

Soft ROI shapes influence and buy-in.

The problem is, most business cases blur the line. What buyers want now is both — separated, attributed, and traceable.

“Show Me the Math” > “Trust the Headline”

Today’s buyers (especially finance leaders) are bringing spreadsheet logic into every conversation. What they’re asking for:

Transparent calculations. Where does this $800K come from?
Source attribution. Is this pulled from our data or someone else’s?
Assumption control. Can we update the inputs to reflect our business?

In other words: let me break it. If it holds, I’ll believe it.

If you’re not inviting scrutiny, your ROI probably won’t survive it.

The New Playbook for Credible ROI

Here’s how leading sellers and value consultants are adapting:

1. Build ROI Models That Invite Collaboration

Don't present a locked model. Present a working one. Let the buyer explore inputs, adjust baselines, and stress-test assumptions.

2. Separate Hard from Soft — Visibly

Don’t blur productivity gains with actual cost reduction. Tag each impact type. Build trust by being clear about what’s quantifiable and what’s directional.

3. Use Buyer Data, Not Generic Benchmarks

Even rough internal data (like average deal size or rep time spent) beats external averages. Personalized ROI always outperforms theoretical ROI.

4. Narrate the Change, Not Just the Outcome

Frame ROI as a journey: “You’re here. With us, you could get there. Here’s what changes in between.” Paint a picture, then support it with math.

Why This Matters Now

In 2025, value is under pressure. Budget committees are tighter. Every new tool must justify its cost and its friction. Sales decks full of inflated returns don’t cut it.

ROI is no longer the clincher — it’s the checkpoint.

And unless your business case can hold up under CFO scrutiny, it’s just another slide in the deck.

Conclusion

At Spotlight.ai, we’ve felt this shift firsthand.

That’s why we rebuilt our value assessment engine to automatically distinguish between hard and soft ROI, map every input to CRM or transcript data, and show buyers exactly how their value model was built.

We don’t believe the answer is more ROI. We believe the answer is more credible ROI.